Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Mid-week Craving Overcome By Strawberry & Almond Clafoutis

Some call this something in between a cake and a custard. I call it a huge baking success. I guess its those lucky ramekins again! There could be lots of reasons to head to the kitchen. But ramekins. Yes, certainly!

I am not sure whether its a hormonal imbalance or the need for nutritional support that I was craving something gooey and crusty all at the same time. I blame today’s middle of the week dessert desire to human conditions and the darn ramekins and to KD Lang!IMG_7808I baked these Strawberry and Almond Clafoutis pronounced (kla-foo-TEE) out of nothing. Okay, not really, because I had all the ingredients at home, so it feels it was not much of a hard work.

Ingredients for Strawberry and Almond Clafoutis are:

One fourth cup melted unsalted butter
Half cup granulated sugar
One cup fresh strawberries
Half cup all-purpose flour
One-third cup almonds
1 tablespoon cornstarch
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
Three-fourth cups milk
Half teaspoon vanilla extract
Half tablespoon confectioner’s sugar (now that I did not have. I just powdered some ordinary sugar and used it).IMG_7648 Wash the strawberries and drain in a colander. Pat dry with paper towels. Hull the strawberries and slice them lengthwise.

In a blender, add the flour and almonds and grind finely. Add the cornstarch, pinch of salt and blend again. Crack the three eggs into the flour mixture and whirl again, adding the milk and melted butter to get a smooth crêpe-like batter.  IMG_7790 With little butter on your fingertips, grease the ramekins. If you don’t have ramekins use a gratin or an eight inch baking dish. IMG_7791IMG_7793 Create a layer with the strawberries in each greased ramekin. Pour the batter dividing it equally into the ramekins. I used up all four of mine with the quantity of batter I made today.
IMG_7794Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake the Clafoutis for about 45-50 minutes. They would have set by then and puffed up nicely.  You will see their edges browned.
IMG_7795 IMG_7796Serve them while they are still warm, either with more strawberries on top or with some ice cream or with crème fraiche.
IMG_7798I dusted them with some homemade powdered sugar and topped them with some more slices of strawberries.
IMG_7802 IMG_7800 IMG_7809My craving now has a new name…Strawberry and Almond Clafoutis!IMG_7811

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems like it's not much of a work. Will try together.
She tried some Tilapia cakes last evening. They were awesome :-)

PreeOccupied said...

Oh so nice. I have a FB page, maybe you could share that recipe there. I like making what other people have mastered. You know, its less hard work. :-)

Kalyan Karmakar said...

this was more tantalising than the making of Avatar. Looks excellent

anandi said...

Hi...I stumbled on to your page when I was looking for something sweet. Tell me, what can i use, if I don't have strawberries? Cherries?

PreeOccupied said...

@ anandi, please use any kind of berries for the Clafoutis. Cherries will work well as well. But you might want to remove the seeds of the fresh ones. Blueberries, raspberries, etc. will make wonderful Clafoutis.

anandi said...

Thankyou...will try it out this weekend and post the results along with the pix:)